TP Link TL-WN722N USB Wifi Adapter

I've mentioned this gadget before, but if you are looking for a really good value Linux friendly USB wifi adapter this is the one It's a bit bulky but it has an antenna so it gives good performance and reach. It is fine to plug into an old desktop if you don't want to run a cable.
Where it is really useful is in Linux on laptops. Many common laptops don't have a decent Linux friendly wifi solution that works out of the box. If you have a Realtek, Mediatek or Broadcom wifi card chances are you won't have wifi from the live ISO and you'll need to connect via cable to do the install. On the other hand the TL-WN722N is Atheros based and probably will work with most distros and give you wifi until you get the internal adapter working. I was able to install Antergos without a 50 foot Ethernet cable using the Tl-WN722N. I highly recommend you get one of these for your toolbox.

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

We use the TP-Link TL-WN821N at the college because they work out of the box in Ubuntu and Kali and it makes life easier for our wireless security labs when the students don't have to install firmware in their Linux VMs. Of course we still have to install drivers in Windows.

'freedom...is actually the reason that men live together in political organisations at all. Without it, political life as such would be meaningless. The raison d'Être of politics is freedom, and its field of experience is action'.
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"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

Some of the later versions of TL-WN821N use a Realtek chipset not Atheros. Should still work but might need the non-free firmware.

I have two TL-WN822N (same as TL-WN821N but different case and 2 antennas). The earlier version has Atheros chip but the later V4 is a Realtek chip. The V4 needed a driver built from Github source. https://github.com/M...eu-linux-driver

registered Linux user number 324659 || The importance of Reading The *Fine* Manual! :D
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.

The newer V5 of the TL-WN821N with the RealTek chipset does require a small workaround with some updated drivers and a blacklisting of an older but similarly named driver. I verified this working in Kali Linux. Haven't attempted any other distro yet. I can post a link to the instructions later as I'm not at work where this system resides.

'freedom...is actually the reason that men live together in political organisations at all. Without it, political life as such would be meaningless. The raison d'Être of politics is freedom, and its field of experience is action'.
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I've given away one of my older TL-WN722N units. One of the ex--teachers at my granddaughter's former preschool took home my donated Dell Optiplex GX620 desktop she used before the school closed. After setting it up remotely from the router with no Ethernet cable she was surprised to find she couldn't get on the Internet. No room in the low profile desktop for a PCI based wifi card so I had to come to her rescue. I still have one unit left which ain't going anywhere.

Blacklist the rtl8192cu driver by adding the line blacklist rtl8192cu in the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Reboot the VM and connect the dongle to the VM.

'freedom...is actually the reason that men live together in political organisations at all. Without it, political life as such would be meaningless. The raison d'Être of politics is freedom, and its field of experience is action'.
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I just booted up my old system and needed to use TL-822N V4 so downloaded again and read the readme file. It's better to install with dkms so it rebuilds if you install a new kernel. Just as easy. From the readme (slightly edited as it was wrong in that you need to run as root).
## Building and installing using DKMS

This tree supports Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS), a system for
generating kernel modules from out-of-tree kernel sources. It can be used to
install/uninstall kernel modules, and the module will be automatically rebuilt
from source when the kernel is upgraded (for example using your package manager).

1. Install DKMS and other required tools

# apt-get install git build-essential dkms linux-headers-<whatever>

##insert appropriate headers package

2. Add the driver to DKMS. This will copy the source to a system directory so
that it can used to rebuild the module on kernel upgrades. Run from driver directory

# dkms add .

3. Build and install the driver.

# dkms install rtl8192eu/1.0

If you wish to uninstall the driver at a later point, use
_dkms uninstall rtl8192eu/1.0_. To completely remove the driver from DKMS use
_dkms remove rtl8192eu/1.0_.

registered Linux user number 324659 || The importance of Reading The *Fine* Manual! :D
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.